Delhi's water woes far from over, may continue for next few days

Despite paramilitary forces having taken control of the Munak canal, it will take a good number of days to restore the damaged gates of the canal that were destroyed by protesters during the Jat quota agitation.

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Mail Today

New Delhi

February 23, 2016

UPDATED: February 23, 2016 08:16 IST

The damaged portion of the canal.

Despite the paramilitary forces taking control of the Munak canal, Delhi's water woes may continue for the next few days. The Delhi Jal Board (DJB) said water crisis will continue as violent protesters have damaged the gates of the canal with earth moving machine at many points and will take 7-10 days for complete restoration of services.

However, the Delhi government said they managed to restore 25 per cent of water supply by Monday evening and might be able to reach 50 per cent if continuous water is sent from Haryana.

According to an official, gates of pucca canal are still closed and it was damaged using earthmoving machines at various locations. "Much before the Army could take control of the canal, the protesters had damaged the control panel and broke enormous area of pucca canal using JCB. Our teams are assessing the damage and it will take 7-10 days to repair it. Till then we ask people of Delhi to conserve water as scarcity will continue and we will send water through rationing," Delhi Water Minister Kapil Mishra told Mail Today.

However, Delhi will get partial relief as water released through a sub-branch is expected to reach the city by evening.

To speed up the repair process, the government has also requested the Centre and Haryana CM to deploy Army engineers to repair the canal as soon as possible. Earlier in the day, CM Arvind Kejriwal thanked the Centre and the Army for securing of Munak canal. "Thank u army, thank u centre for securing munak canal back. Great relief for delhi (sic)," Kejriwal said in a tweet. The government also sought security for its officials who are giving support in repairing the damage.

As per existing agreements, Haryana supplies 580 MGD (1,100 cusecs) of water to Delhi from Munak canal and other sources. The Haryana government has informed its counterpart in Delhi that about 400 cusecs of water has been released from the sub-branch of Munak out of which nearly 300 cusecs was about to reach Delhi by evening. But a DJB official alleged that water supply is yet to start from Haryana.

Seven water treatment plants dried up in Delhi due to disruption in raw water supply from Munak canal to Delhi, causing massive water crunch in west, north, south-west, central and New Delhi areas.